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The Bengal Renaissance : a Critique

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The Bengal Renaissance : a Critique 20th European Conference of Modern South Asian Studies Manchester (UK), 8th – 11th July 2008 Panel 9: Bengal Studies The Bengal Renaissance : a critique by Prof. Soumyajit Samanta Dept. of English, University of North Bengal, Darjeeling West Bengal, India, 734013 Preamble This paper welcomes listeners to a fresh review of the phenomenon known as The Bengal Renaissance. It is a fact that during the early 19th century the Bengali intellect learned to raise questions about issues & beliefs under the impact of British rule in the Indian subcontinent. In a unique manner, Bengal had witnessed an intellectual awakening that deserves to be called a Renaissance in European style. The new intellectual avalanche of European knowledge, especially philosophy, history, science & literature through the medium of education in English may be said to have affected contemporary mind & life very radically. Renaissance minds included Raja Rammohan Roy (1774-1833), Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809-1831) & his radical disciples Debendranath Tagore (1817-1905) & his followers, Akshay Kumar Datta (1820-1826), Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-91), Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-73), Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838-94), & Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). 1 The major vehicle & expressions of the Bengal Renaissance were: • the appearance of a large number of newspapers & periodicals • the growth of numerous societies & associations • a number of reform movements, both religious & social These served as so many forums for different dialogues & exchanges that the Renaissance produced. The major achievements of the Renaissance were: • a secular struggle for rational freethinking • growth of modern Bengali literature • spread of Western education & ideas • fervent & diverse intellectual inquiry • rise of nationalistic ideas • rise of nationalism challenged the foreign subjugation of country In British Orientalism & the Bengal Renaissance (1969), David Kopf considers the idea of R(r)enaissance (with a lower case r) as synonymous with modernization or revitalization. He underlines that the notion of Renaissance is used to signify a set of cultural patterns associated with Italy during the 15th & 16th centuries by European scholars. To him Renaissance signifies for him a particular kind of socio-cultural process associated with the ideas of revitalization & modernization. The basic shift in ideology occurs at that instant when the idea of Renaissance as a process is accepted in a new context and liberated from specific historical periods or cultures or cultural patterns. It can then be applied to any culture at any period of history (Kopf 280-289). Critique of Bengal vis-a vis the European Renaissance The Indian Renaissance which may be said to have started in Bengal is in some respects different from the European. First of all, its historical location is well marked. The beginnings may be traced to the victory of Clive at Plassey in1757. The major exponent of the Bengal Renaissance, Raja Rammohan Roy was born in 1772. 2 Secondly, the great exponents of Bengal Renaissance discovered the sources of humanism in the new learning which they inculcated from the west & not in ancient Literature of the country. Thus when the Government was on its way to establish the Sanskrit College, it encountered opposition from Rammohan, who opposed the idea on the ground that Sanskrit learning was dry & lacked relevance to modern practice. The Bengal Renaissance may be said to be a movement of discovery rather than re-discovery, ‘it was a nascence rather than a re-nascence‘ (Gupta 68). Again, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the greatest product of Sanskrit College was oriental in his scholarship & dress but radically Western in his social reformist thought & educational ideas. Even the great Puranic stories went a considerable transformation in the light of Western thought in the writings of Michael Madhusudan Dutt (Gupta 68). The first phase of the Renaissance coincided with the rapid transition from medievalism to modernism in early 19th century India. The most prominent exponent & inaugurator of this transition may be said to be Raja Rammohan Roy. In his letter written to James Silk- Buckingham on January 18, 1818 he stated how the “present system of religion adhered to by the Hindus is not well calculated to promote their political interests.” This is because of the distinction of castes, introducing innumerable divisions & subdivisions among them, has entirely deprived them of patriotic feeling and the multitude of religious rites & ceremonies & the laws of purification have totally disqualified them from undertaking any difficult enterprises. - It is necessary that some change should take place in their religion, at least for the sake of their political advantage & social comfort (Gupta 9). His program of religious reform also led him to embrace social reforms. His alert mind perceived that without knowledge of the fundamentals of modern sciences Indians cannot participate in the social transition from the medieval to the modern. To achieve modernization, therefore, grounding in Western systems of thought was Absolutely essential. To Victor Jacquemont he confessed that India requires many more years of English domination so that she might not have many things to lose while she is reclaiming her political independence (Gupta 1958. 14). He realized that the progress of Indians did not lie in isolation of their 3 independent strivings but in the brotherhood & interdependence of individuals as well as nations. He was the truly social reformer who could realize the incarnation of the Renaissance spirit in the minds of his countrymen. Tagore had emphatically chanted in his Gitanjali: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic wars; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action – Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. (holisticonline.com) Ram Mohan’s task was carried further in a revolutionary but iconoclastic manner by Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, who, along with David Hare (1775-1841) was responsible for dissemination of European learning & science among Bengalis. However, unlike other leaders around them, they were godless secularists with little faith in denominations or religious instruction & yet staunch idealists. Henry Derozio was a Calcutta Eurasian of Portuguese-Indian ancestry & was much taken up with by the ideology of the French Revolution & English Radicalism. Under his tutelage students were encouraged to debate freely & question authority. He upheld the motto: “He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool, & he who does not is a slave “. He was the sole inspiration behind the inauguration of the Parthenon ( the Atheneum, according to Sibnath Sastri) on February 15, 1830. Orthodox society was deeply shocked when they knew that some Hindu College boys were reciting the Iliad instead of holy slokas & mantras. It was rumoured that one of the students greeted the goddess Kali with a “good morning, Madam”. Bacon, Locke, Hume, Smith, Paine & Bentham were deeply debated. The Derozians not only 4 dismantled traditional customs & Hindu beliefs but they equally criticized the practices of colonialism. In the words of Derozio himself, My country! In thy days of glory past A beauteous halo circled round thy brow, And worshipped as a deity thou wast, Where is that glory, where that reverence now? (Gupta 17) Along with Derozio, David Hare devoted his life to reform as well as the furtherance of modern education in his adopted country, Bengal. He was the virtual founder of the Hindu College of 1817 & militated against Press Regulations (1835) & the export of coolies to Mauritius (1838). He also pressed for the extension of the jury system (1835). Disciples of Derozio were known as the followers of Young Bengal & one of their objectives were to summon Hinduism to the bar of reason. Indeed, one of its positive aspect was a fearless rationalism & a candid appreciation of regenerating new ideas from the West. In this context it must be remarked that the Bengal Renaissance was flawed from the outset not merely because it failed to involve a regeneration of ancient literature & institutions but also because the educated community of India hyped only the immediate benefits of British rule in India & not its exploiting character. The protagonists of our “Renaissance” failed to comprehend the needs of the toiling masses who lived in a nether world; with their obsessive Hindu traditions & rituals as well as the handicaps of their fellow Muslim citizens. In other words their intellectualism did not make common cause with the masses. It was not a mass movement. However, the real critique of the Bengal renaissance lies elsewhere. It must be understood that the expansion of British imperialism in India unleashed the forces of bourgeois revolution. The consolidation of the British empire under a centralized governance as well as the introduction & implementation of machinery in industrial production led to the historical inevitability of the bourgeois revolution , without which India could not emerge into the Twentieth century. But such an intellectual & financial nascence or awakening led to the 5 birth of the Indian
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